contribute their own ideas, and if somebody agreed with them, they might tell their friends, and it's like a google search. it starts kind of bubbling up. thomas payne walked out his front door in philadelphia. he was a imgrant from centerfuges land, but he could think and write clearly, walked out the door and opened 12 shops in 10 blocks and printed common sense in 1776, and it was the harry potter of the late 18th century. [laughter] it helped to ignite the american revolution. well, starting in the last third of the 20th century, television displaced the printing press as the main way we communicate in our democracy. s # -- it had a profound impact. it's not a two-way conversation. the printing press, you get what you want to know and contribute your own ideas. with television, you can talk back to the tv screen, but it doesn't hear you because you're you're -- unless you call if on the c-span show. that's an exception there. my point is mostly it's a one way flow of information, and it's mostly sponsored by large advertisers, but they are increaseingly sponsoring political ideas as well. when